The invention relates to a drive joint for establishing a connection that is rotationally and axially fixed, and nevertheless allows a limited angular movement between two components, particularly in the drive train of a motor vehicle, which drive joint comprises an inner hub as the inner joint part, an outer hub as the outer joint part as well as torque-transmitting members as additional joint parts that are provided between the inner and outer joint parts. Furthermore, the invention relates to a drive shaft comprising at least one drive joint of such type.
A drive joint of such type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,674,183 (=WO 2005/056327). In this drive joint, the inner hub and/or the outer hub are deformed in such a way when a defined axial force acting upon the joint is exceeded that the inner hub can disengage from the outer hub. This solution has proved particularly advantageous. However, it is necessary for this purpose to adapt the material properties of the inner hub and/or the outer hub to each other in such a way that in the case of a defined axial force such as that occurring during a head-on collision, the joint parts can disengage from each other so that the shaft parts connected to the joint can telescope into each other. In some special applications, such a design of the joint parts can prove disadvantageous.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,255 (=DE 199 43 880) discloses a drive joint of a drive shaft, in which the cage of the drive joint is in the form of a predetermined breaking point. If a high axial force acts upon the drive shaft during an accident, the cage and thus the drive joint is destroyed. The inner hub can then move relative to the outer hub. This solution also results in an axial shortening of the drive arrangement, which is desirable in the case of a head-on collision and which avoids the drive arrangement from buckling to one side and also avoids any rotating components thereof from entering the vehicle interior. However, the destruction of the cage leads to fragments that, in the worst case, can likewise enter the vehicle interior and injure passengers, and more particularly lock the drive joint and the drive shaft, thereby resulting in additional states of the drive shaft that put the vehicle occupants at risk.